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Romney: It's a trap!?

The New Yorker’s Cassidy notes of the Romney campaign: “Their rivals in Chicago set a trap for them, and they walked right into it. Rather than ignoring the ad, or dismissing it quickly and moving onto other topics less favorable to Obama, the Romney campaign decided to stand and fight on ground it cannot hope to win.” And: Out in Chicago, David Axelrod and his cronies must be swapping high fives all the way down Michigan Avenue. In Boston, meanwhile, Team Romney appears oblivious to the lessons of its own experience in the dark art of putting out underhanded attack ads.”

Courting Bloomberg… The New York Times: "In an election year when partisanship has burned white hot and the economy has sputtered, two presidential candidates who agree on very little, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, have reached a rare consensus: they are both determined to score the endorsement of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York, whose name is all but synonymous with Wall Street clout and nonpartisan politics. On Tuesday, Mr. Romney showed up at the mayor’s philanthropic foundation on the Upper East Side of Manhattan for a secret breakfast meeting. Over coffee and juice, Mr. Romney made clear that he was there to pick the mayor’s brain...Mr. Bloomberg, who has lent his reputation for common-sense government and his prowess for fund-raising to dozens of candidates from both parties over the past decade, feared that an endorsement in the 2008 race might have negative repercussions for the city he oversees. But as his mayoral term winds down, he has told advisers that he is willing to back a candidate this time around, touching off an intense competition for his support in the general election."

"Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, on the eve of suspending his roller coaster presidential bid, said that he will embrace Mitt Romney's candidacy Wednesday and is ready to campaign for his former rival," USA Today writes. "Gingrich said he doubts he'll ever make another bid for president. ‘I'm already 68 years old,’ he said. ‘I believe Mitt Romney will become president. I believe he will do well enough to be re-elected, and I do not think in 2020 I'll be a plausible candidate.’”